This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. The spinal fluid from patients with hereditary neurodegenerative diseases including spinocerebellar ataxia, Huntington's disease, and other familial ataxias will be analyzed by a protein chip array technology called "surface enhanced laser desorption/ionization-time of flight spectrometery". The information obtained from this analysis will be compared to CSF from healthy control subjects to determine if a pattern exists which correlates with the subtype of ataxia or stage of disease. If a correlation exists, a "spectrometric fingerprint" could be developed as a diagnostic tool. Previous pilot studies revealed significantly different proteomic patterns which could be useful for diagnosis and disease state.